MORE ON:

You might not be able to smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em — even if they’re e-cigarettes.

The city is planning to classify electronic smokes in the same restrictive category as regular cigarettes, which would make them off-limits everywhere from offices to restaurants to beaches.

“They may introduce a new generation to nicotine addiction, which could lead to their smoking combustion cigarettes,” Dr. Tom Farley, the city’s health commissioner, said in justifying the move.

A hearing before the City Council’s Health Committee is scheduled Wednesday, less than a month before the end of the Bloomberg administration.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered and allow users to inhale vaporized liquid nicotine without the smell of tobacco.

Defenders say they give tobacco addicts a chance to transition from more harmful tobacco smoke.

But council supporters, including outgoing Speaker Christine Quinn, say the city has to regulate e-cigarettes because their use has exploded among kids.

The electronic devices were being used by nearly twice as many middle- and high-school students in 2012 than in 2011, backers of the council legislation said.

They also argued it’s hard to distinguish between the real thing and the electronic substitutes for enforcement purposes.

But Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, said that as of a couple of months ago, most restaurants were not reporting e-cigarettes as a major issue.

The Bloomberg administration has been at war with the cigarette industry since taking office in 2002, and recently added landmark legislation that bans the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21.

Quinn joined council member James Gennaro (D-Queens) and Health Committee chair Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) in proclaiming that the city’s crackdown on tobacco had lowered smoking rates and saved lives.

They warned jointly that e-cigarettes “threaten the progress we’ve made, and we must take decisive and immediate action.”

“Because e-cigarettes are designed to look like cigarettes, they pose a problem to business owners and threaten effective enforcement of the Smoke-Free Air Act,” they added.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said it strongly supports the legislation, arguing that allowing e-cigarette use in places where smoking isn’t permitted “could discourage smokers from quitting and lead them to dual use of both cigarettes and e-cigarettes.”

Let's clear up a couple of errors here.. ONLY generation 1 ecigs look like cigarettes - there is a vast array of gen 2 and 3 ecigs that perform much better and bear no resemblance whatsoever to cigarettes. Also you VAPE an ecig - you cannot SMOKE one as there is no smoke, only harmless vapor which has zero ill effect on anyone nearby.

If public buildings with No Smoking signs added "Ecigs Permitted" to the signs, people may just then assume that someone puffing on an ecig is actually vaping and NOT smoking - though common sense and your nose should tell you that the faint aroma of ecig vapor is nothing like the stench of cigarette smoke

The city wants to ban ecigs simply because they are losing tax money when people don't buy real cigs. Don't forget, the single biggest money maker from tobacco cigs is NOT the tobacco companies, it is GOVERNMENT! The last I knew, Marlboro made about 40 cents profit from a pack of cigs, and the government made about $7. That amounts to outright extortion on the part of government. No wonder they don't want any competition from ecigs. I smoked for about 40 years, and it was only through the use of ecigs that I was able to quit. That was over 3 years ago. I think ecigs may have saved my life.

Christine Quinn says "the city has to regulate e-cigarettes because their use has exploded among kids". So not only you want to punish the adults but you want to force them back to smoking cigarettes? Will our politicians ever make sense? Oh no they cant - they need campaign funds from Big tobacco and Big Pharma - in 3rd world countries these are simply called BRIBES.....

Bans like this are begging people to help seduce the next generation into becoming smoke tax slaves, via smoking a traditional cigarette. Politicians like tis, want smoke tax money, and big Pharma grant money, period. All generations who used to be dependent upon traditional tobacco are switching over to the eCigs. The next generation is the only HOPE FOR SMOKE TAX MONEY these politicians have left. They even pay millions to Spin Doctors, to twist the data analysis in order to Fear Monger their citizens into rallying for their "cause". It's all well documented. DO YOUR RESEARCH.

TobaccoFree groups are sponsored by DRUG COMPANIES whose FINANCIAL INTERESTS are threatened when smokers switch over to something that actually works, such as Swedish Snus and electronic cigarettes. They are NOT cigarettes, they are only called that in order to attract the attention of smokers, to help them see there is a CHOICE out there. Over 90% of smokers have failed to quit! Via Drug products. return to smoking! repeat quitting/smoking, by using DRUG products. ECIGS and Snus are for the 90% who are tired of failing. At least with the eCig or Snus, they can slow way down if not quit altogether. THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM FOR POLITICIANS AND ORGS WHO MAKE A LIVING OFF SMOKE TAXES. Who supports ALA? Big Pharma, Chantix. Who supports ACA? Court ordered smoke profit money. Who supports politicians who ban the competition? Big Pharma, Smoke tax money, and every greedy ploy there is. STOP THE NONSENSE, SAVE A LIFE!!!!!! Electronic cigarettes have a huge success rate. EVEN THE ZERO NICOTINE ECIG WON OVER THE PATCH.

Why should ex smokers be caught up in Boomburgs self proclaimed war against cigarette COMPANIES? That's HIS war, not ours. Anybody who USES others in their own political battles, does NOT serve the interest of the PEOPLE they pretend to represent. Murdering a business via political pull is completely wrong. MURDERING PEOPLE via political pull is completely Narcisstic, gruesome, and deplorable. ECigs saves lives, because they are NOT SMOKE. No tar, no carcinogens no toxins, just a nice simulation of nice Flavors, throat hit, vapor, nicotine, that satisfies an ex smoker enough to help get them through the JONESing for a smoke. They do not kill like Chantix, or Dictators do.

Somebody please send these non educated dictators the real studies like the Drexel study by Dr. Iyor Bernstein, dr. Poloso's studies, Dr. Farsalinos studies, the true study belatedly released by CDC after they spun their their spins with their first partial release, the real National youth study, the consumer website CASAA.org, and especially the BILL OF RIGHTS AND A COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THESE UNITED STATES. This is absolute ignorance and callous narcissism to ban something as wonderful as the ecig that is extremely successful in helping the smoker to forget to light up a traditional cigarette, or also is helpful to cut back on smoking by multitudes. The studies prove they are safe for bystanders, and safer than traditional cigarettes. THIS BAN AGAINST SAFER ALTERNATIVES MUST BE STOPPED!!!

These things harm no-one, and yet New York politicians are putting more effort into banning them than they are into doing anything about the killer drivers who go scot free when they kill and maim pedestrians on the road. Reckless driving is an epidemic in New York and a real threat to innocent lives, but not one of these power hungry socialist Democrat scumbags have ever so much as lifted a finger to stop it. So whatever their motives in banning things like e-cigarettes, we know that "public safety" is not one of them.

It's about the money .. who contributes to politicians? Tobacco companies and pharmaceutical companies. Who's losing money if you aren't buying cigarettes or using Nicotine patches, gum, lozenges? AND e cigs aren't taxed .. who else is losing money? There are 3 entities who want vapor ciggs to evaporate.

No, the smoking ban doesn't effect me because I don't smoke where anyone will be affected, I smoke in the park and even on the beaches and have never had any problems with cops or anyone else, this POS mayor is a power hungry idiot and I'm glad to see him go and he should take the idiots who like him with him. people are going to do what they want to do and banning e cigarettes will not stop people from smoking them.

The little one who hopes to become king of the world should ban everything and everybody. That would solve a great many problems and make it easier to subjugate the remaining few, while having the world as his oyster.